We recently had the opportunity to conduct a proof of concept in live operation together with some of the most well-known festivals in Switzerland, including Open Air St. Gallen and Open Air Gampel. The goal was clear: to test Nowon’s technology under real-world conditions, over an extended period of time, and at scale.
Unlike short pilot tests, this proof of concept was designed as a long-term deployment. Across 98 monitored events, our system continuously analyzed live performances and automatically identified 1,655 individual tracks. This allowed us to validate not only recognition accuracy, but also system stability, scalability, and robustness in noisy, dynamic festival environments.
Live festivals are among the most challenging settings for music recognition. Multiple stages, overlapping sound, crowd noise, and varying audio quality all place high demands on technology. The results confirmed that automated recognition can reliably support live music documentation even under these conditions.
One of the most tangible impacts of the project was the drastic reduction in manual effort for organizers. Traditionally, festival documentation relies on dozens of paper setlists that need to be collected, reviewed, and manually typed into systems after the event. This process is time-consuming, error-prone, and often incomplete.
Beyond efficiency gains, the proof of concept highlighted broader benefits:
more complete and consistent documentation of music usage,
faster availability of usage data after events,
and a stronger foundation for accurate copyright remuneration.
By making live music usage measurable and verifiable, automated setlists help align the interests of organizers, artists, and collecting societies.
The collaboration with Open Air St. Gallen and Open Air Gampel provided valuable insights into operating music recognition technology at festival scale. It demonstrated that automation is not only feasible, but also practical and beneficial in real production environments.
We see this proof of concept as an important step toward establishing digital-first workflows for live music documentation. It reinforces our belief that technology can significantly reduce friction in the live ecosystem while improving transparency and fairness for everyone involved.
